Back in the mid 80's Mike Petito had a primed duster that he drove from Brooklyn to Staten Island. Just about every Thurs night he showed up @ Masters Shopping Plaza w/his sidekick John looking for action. Mike would run anyone. The duo would put some show on intimidating & instigating anyone that paid attention. Most of the crowd were just bench racers. But he did manage to get races off w/a select few. Seeing the car in action was pretty impressive as he had regular worn out street tires w/no suspension work other than the little mopar tricks. Rumor has it ran 10's. Not sure I believe that because I seen him @ Etown one Sunday morning w/No Time on the window & watched him make a clean pass & by accident his time flashed 12.68 After he sold the duster, he had a box nova w/a small block which others have referenced in this thread. This car was no where near as fast as the duster. I remember my 1st dealings w/him on South Ave(really Gulf Ave). He looked @ my car a stock looking 80 T/A w/4.9 liter shaker & said for all I know there could be a big block in this car. My reply...You'll have to find that out after the race. We agreed no juice. He bit. After the run we pulled over just me & him. I wanted my money but he wasn't willing to pay me for he accused me of using nos. He said let me see under the hood. I said to him if u don't find any juice you'll pay right? He said yeah I'll pay. I popped the hood & he was pissed, (I thought I was going to have a problem w/him) there sat an LS6 under the shaker.
Through the years I gained respect for Mike as he did what ever it took to get races off. He was there for one reason....and that was to race. I never witnessed his bad driving tactics that others referenced, but I did witness his bad attitude.